The third-annual Play 4 Parkinson's event got underway Saturday at Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Va., as a five-team event featured two games each for Virginia, Princeton, Georgetown, Towson and Air Force.

Fallball generally features unique, compelling and often specific storylines, both among teams and over the lacrosse landscape. For Virginia and Princeton, replacing significant graduated seniors like Steele Stanwick, Chris Bocklet, Tyler Fiorito and Chad Wiedmaier was the focus. For Georgetown, a new coaching staff gets to know its personnel and implement its systems. For Towson and Air Force, two teams that made significant progress in 2012 look to continue that upward trajectory in 2013.

Additionally, this fall carries with it the implementation of newly approved rules — notably the addition of a 30-second shot clock after stall warnings, a four-inch limitation on shooting strings in players’ pockets, the elimination of the sideline horn, quicker restarts, a 20-yard substitution box and penalties after the third face-off violation per half.

It’s fallball for the refs as well, and the new rules are still getting figured out. For instance, there were no stall warnings in Virginia’s 12-7 win over Towson, but at least four in their 17-10 loss to Princeton, including one very early in the first quarter. At day’s end, Cavalier coach Dom Starsia said that he wasn’t upset to see the stall warning more aggressively applied, but that the consistency among contests needed to be smoothed out.

Of the effect of the rules, generally, however Starsia said they were what the game needed and that he liked the pace both Wahoo games took, pointing out that he never felt his team could sit on the ball. He noted that it’s still preliminary to judge the rules on games in which teams aren’t totally playing to win, and said he still hoped to see a visible shot clock at some point. Additionally, he said after Towson’s third face-off violation in a half early in the day, it didn’t occur to him that his team should go man-up (“That’s what I have Coach [Marc] Van [Arsdale] for, he’s the brains of the operation,” Starsia said), on which they ultimately scored.

Princeton coach Chris Bates suggested similar thoughts on the overall effect the rule changes had on pace, though his team saw more stall warnings as a handful were dispensed in the Tigers’ game vs. Georgetown. There were no stall warnings applied in the Towson-Air Force game.

Check back Monday for more photos and video from Saturday’s event, as well as a look at Sunday’s women’s event, which included Northwestern, Penn State, Duke, Florida, Maryland and Towson.

VIRGINIA

(Foy’s observations come from the fourth quarter vs. Towson and last three quarters vs. Princeton)

As Virginia looks to a reliable lead attacking option to replace Steele Stanwick, whose value last season wasn’t just in controlling tempo but also often initiating offensive sets, it appears sophomore midfielder Ryan Tucker will be in a group that includes senior Matt White, as well. Tucker looked extremely strong and confident dodging from up top Saturday, burying a righty shot on the run vs. Princeton, and distributing the ball effectively at times.

The Cavs will be relatively experienced at the close defense, returning Harry Prevas and Scott McWilliams while looking to replace Matt Lovejoy. It appeared Greg Danseglio saw the most time at the third spot, and Starsia said afterward he was disappointed at times that the group didn’t show more composure and leadership, especially playing in front of a goalie group that lacked junior Austin Geisler and freshman Dan Marino because of injury and featured inexperienced guys in sophomore Rhody Heller, senior Conor McGee and junior walk-on Matt Robertson.

Senior middie Chris LaPierre is a known quantity at this point — Virginia’s lone captain, one of the game’s preeminent shortstick d-middies and a constant threat to play more offense. One thing that was clear from Saturday is Virginia’s intention to keep him on the field a lot as he may have seen more run throughout the day than any other Cavalier. After the Princeton game, Starsia discussed how the rules necessitate someone like LaPierre with competency at both ends and joked, “If he could’ve changed the rules to tailor his game for his senior year, this is what he would’ve come up with.”

Replacing longstick middie Chris Clements will be another point of emphasis, and sophomore Tanner Ottenbreit took the lion’s share of the runs vs. Princeton, though he looked overmatched at times guarding Thomas Schreiber, who Starsia said might be the best midfielder in the country. Early in the season, expect to see McWilliams cover opponents best offensive player regardless of position as the Cavs learn their matchups better.

Observations from IL’s Caroline Darney
Virginia entered fall ball with many questions to answer following the departure of several key players including Stanwick, Chris Bocklet, and Rob Fortunato. Some of those answers will have to wait due to injuries, but the Cavaliers saw some bright spots in their games against Towson and Princeton in the Play for Parkinson’s tournament.

As expected, White started in the ‘quarterback’ role for Virginia, but others such as Mark Cockerton and Nick O’Reilly also took turns behind the cage. Mark Cockerton emerged as a standout player for the Cavaliers Saturday, appearing more confident and aggressive with the ball than last season. He (unofficially) finished the day with four goals, and moved fluidly as a member of the attack and midfield.

LaPierre saw significant time as a part of the first midfield, something Starsia had alluded to in the off season. With Rob Emery out with a thumb injury, Carl Walrath joined Tucker on first midfield, but multiple combinations of players were used throughout both games.

Blake Riley excelled in his first game back after missing last season with an injury. Bobby Hill played solidly as a shortstick defensive midfielder, his tenacious style of play carrying over from the spring.

Rhody Heller started in goal for the Cavaliers, but Conor McGee, and walk on Matt Robertson also saw playing time for the injured Austin Geisler and Dan Marino. Virginia’s squad is rife with injuries throughout the lineup, leading Starsia to have to tweak his personnel.

Transfer student Charlie Streep didn’t see any playing time due to a stress fracture, nor did freshmen midfielders Greg Coholan or Will McNamara. Virginia battled with the fall season rust, throwing away passes and failing to convert multiple plays into points. This Virginia squad appears rough around the edges as of now, but has some pieces that will make them interesting to watch in the spring.

PRINCETON

(Foy’s observations come from the second half vs. Georgetown and last three quarters vs. Virginia)

Playing without Jeff Froccaro, the Tigers offense looked potent and dangerous in half-field sets, able to score off both good dodging and ball movement. Schreiber was incredibly dangerous from up top (he didn’t invert as much as he has at times), exhibiting a quick top move with a fast release on a 14-yard shot in the second half vs. Virginia. He also looked to take a greater role between the lines for the Tigers, and seems to have added some upper body muscle that he used to absorb and run through checks.

Attackman Ryan Ambler was probably the most impressive freshman at Episcopal Saturday, getting on the end of feeds on the back post and frontside in transition before finishing with poise in close. Schreiber and Bates complimented his field awareness after the games and pointed out how well he’s working with Mike McDonald as a 1-2 combo unit.

Princeton also showed good offensive depth. Forrest Sonnenfeldt seemed like the primary initiator running out of the box with the second group, and worked well with attackmen like Brendan DeTommaso and Steffan Gratch, who showed a lot of energy in riding and unsettled situations.

Replacing Wiedmaier, Jonathan Meyers and John Cunningham will be a tall task for Princeton defensive coordinator Greg Raymond, and currently it looks like Rob Castelo is the Tigers best defender. Freshman Mark Strabo made a strong impression down low as well, and junior Brandon Bonvino was strong coming off the wings on face-offs and in between the lines.

In net, freshman Matt O’Connor started and played the first three quarters vs. Virginia. He is a big goalie that stays in the crease, though showed a good propensity for picking off cross-field passes. During one up-and-down series in the second half, he made two stops that he easily caught with confidence and keyed nice outlet passes. Sophomore Eric Sanschagrin came on for O’Connor and shut out the Cavaliers. Brian Kavanagh played the fourth vs. Georgetown and had a couple of good saves in unsettled situations, including a kick save and a one-on-one shot up high from seven yards.

Observations from IL’s Caroline Darney
Princeton played Virginia very aggressively and their attack was firing on all cylinders. Face-off play went about 50/50, and the Tigers had very strong opening and closing quarters against the Cavaliers.

Unofficially, sophomore Kip Orban put away five goals while 2011 third-team All-American Tom Schreiber notched a hattrick. Schreiber moved confidently both on and off ball, and the duo of Ryan Ambler (two goals) and Mike MacDonald (three goals) will be effective on offense for Princeton in the spring.

The starters on both ends of the field were left in the game late, presumably to build familiarity among the units. The new rules notably sped up the matchup, but only a handful of stall warnings were issued. Princeton’s defense played physically, and the gaping hole left by Tyler Fiorito in the goal was filled adequately by freshman Matt O’Connor.

GEORGETOWN

(Foy’s observations come from the second half vs. Princeton and the first half vs. Air Force)

New coach Kevin Warne’s energy on the sidelines is immediately apparent as his hoarse voice rang out throughout Episcopal’s back field vs. Air Force. Talking to some Georgetown parents, several noted the “culture shock” of 6 a.m. running an practice that marked the Hoyas’ fall. It was difficult to take stock of exactly how the changes have manifested themselves on the field as I only saw Georgetown once last season, but the offense appeared more structured organizationally and tried to get good looks off ball movement as opposed to dodges from the midfield.

The Hoyas are experienced on defense with Brennan Bicknese and Chris Nourse, and junior John Wujciak rounded out the starting group. Pat Murray rotated in down low and played on man down. The unit seemed to play calmly against Air Force’s slick attackmen and worked well in the clearing game with freshman goalie Alex Joyce. The defense should provide some stability in front of Joyce as he gets up to speed with the college game if he wins the starting role.

In Zac Guy and Dan McKinney, the Hoyas looked to have two guys capable of playing on both sides of the midfield line. Guy, who’s played attack at times throughout his Georgetown career, seemed more an offensive middie while McKinney played more defense.

Senior Jason McFadden, sophomore Joe Bucci and Guy looked like the first midfield unit, while sophomore Bo Stafford, sophomore Reilly O’Connor and senior Travis Comeau started on attack vs. Air Force, and junio Jeff Fountain came in on extra man. McFadden seemed to initiate most of the dodges from up top while O’Connor had a very happy trigger finger. The Hoyas looked pretty small on attack and lacked a primary dodger behind the cage.

The Hoyas have versatility at the face-off X with junior Chris May and redshirt junior Tyler Knarr, who was playing without a knee brace. The unit looked better against Princeton than against Air Force, but scrapped and did a good job staying with contested groundballs.

Late in the game against Princeton and after liberal subbing, freshman Nic Mahaney looked strong playing shortstick d-middie matched up against Sonnenfeldt, freshman attackman Connor Gallegos was controlling the offense at X and junior middie Grant Fisher buried a goal on a good cut and lefty finish.

TOWSON

(Foy’s observations come from the second half vs. Virginia and a postgame conversation with the coaching staff)

Playing without midfielder Justin Mabus due to injury, the Tigers midfield, deep last season and at times able to run three lines, lacked much pop outside of junior Andrew Hodgson and sophomore Robby Zoppo. Hodgson continued to show progress in his shooting, hitting from the outside on multiple occasions.

At attack, Thomas DeNapoli led the way both with his goalscoring, distribution and offensive control. The 5-11, 175-pound junior will be instrumental in the Tigers’ season as he comes off of a 28-point season in 2012.

In net, senior Andrew Wascavage and redshirt freshman Tyler White split the stars. Wascavage started 13 of Towson’s 15 games last year and put up a 56% save percentage as the backbone of the defense. He looked good early on and late in the first half vs. Virginia. White is a bigger goalie at 6-3 and made a strong impression with some god in-tight stops vs. Air Force.

Freshman defenseman Mike Lowe made a strong impression on coach Shawn Nadelen as he saw his first college action with a unit that brings back John Fennessy and Jojo Ostrander but needs to replace Matt Thomas.

Observations from IL’s Caroline Darney
The Towson Tigers have some real upset potential. They possess many options on attack and played an aggressive style of defense in their two games in Alexandria.

Junior Andrew Hodgson stood out on midfield, seeing the entire field and using his incredibly quick first step to keep opposing defenses on their toes. His stick skills were nearly flawless and he notched some nifty goals throughout the afternoon. It was evident he put in a lot of hard work in the offseason, and with a new number on his jersey, he could be paving a new path for himself this year.

Towson got solid goalie play from Tyler White and Andrew Wascavage, but clears were a little off at times.

AIR FORCE

(Foy’s observations come from the first quarter vs. Georgetown and a postgame conversation with the coaching staff)

The Falcons were 6-7 last year with their best win coming against Army, but they were competitive through the first half against Loyola in Baltimore and a are a candidate to turn heads in 2013 as coach Erik Seremet’s squad brings a large group of upperclassmen into the fold for the first time in two seasons. At the very least, Air Force’s East Coast appearance was an opportunity to get a look at a team that fans don’t often see.

Attackman Keith Dryer was among the nation’s leading freshman scorers in 2012, and his scoring capacity was clearly on display from field level vs. Georgetown as he used his slickness to get topside from X and sneak underneath from the wing to put in two goals.

Junior attckman Mike Crampton may have made the strongest impression. He looked excellent coming out of unsettled situations in the offensive zone with the ball, working quickly off of endline and sideline restarts to take advantage of scrambled defenses and moving the ball well in offensive sets.

Middie Erik Smith earned a reputation as one of DI’s better all-around middies as a first-line guy who also took face-offs, put up huge groundball numbers and played defense if he lost the draw. Smith was good against Georgetown and showed how he could turn draw wins into offense.

Air Force is a fairly aggressive slide and recover defense and did a nice job hedging against Georgetown. Junior Matt Puleo appeared to be the ringleader on the interior, controlling communication.

With three goalies on the roster and senior Austin Fox started all 13 games but stopped less than 50% of the shots he saw, Seremet said the goalie position is still a work in progress for the Falcons. In the game action I saw Saturday, it didn’t appear that there was a standout that seized the job, though freshman Doug Gouchoe got the first nod against Georgetown.

Air Force’s offense is fun and interesting to watch as the top six players are all roughly 5-11, 180-pound clones with similar builds and a lot of smoothness in their sticks.

Observations from IL’s Caroline Darney
The Air Force Academy started against Towson in the first game of the day before taking on Georgetown in the last matchup of the afternoon. Air Force got off to a slow start, but shook off some of the rust and cleaned up their passing as the games went on. Stiff ballwork is to be expected to some extent in fallball, but the cadets will have to clean up the errant passes in order to obtain success in the spring.

With eight players standing over 6-2, they were physically imposing and players like 6-4 attackman Pat Harrison provided a big target. Their high-altitude training worked in their favor as the day progressed, allowing them to move quickly and efficiently up and down the field.

Seen in the Crowd
Cornell Rob Pannell was on hand to support his little brother, James, who started on attack for the Cavaliers and (unofficially) scored three goals. He was also in town ahead of playing Sunday in the U.S. National Team’s intra-squad scrimmage at the Capital Lacrosse Classic at the Landon School.

Tyler Fiorito was on-hand to check out the Tigers and, after games ended, was warmed up by former Princeton teammate and current Towson volunteer assistant coach Chad Wiedmaier as Fiorito is also playing in the U.S. intra-squad scrimmage Sunday.

Former Virginia face off specialist Garrett Ince, who was coaching one of the youth teams that entertained the fans at halftime.

Former Cavalier defenseman Matt Lovejoy, who is playing Sunday in the U.S. Team’s intra-squad scrimmage.